Mark Twain

"The man who doesn't read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them"

Birthplace

Florida, US

Education

Twain moved with his family to Hannibal, Missouri at the age of four, and received a public school education there.

Other jobs

Having worked as a printer and riverboat pilot during his teenage years, Twain had a brief stint as a silver miner in Nevada before getting a job on the Daily Territorial Enterprise newspaper in Virginia.

Did you know?

Mark Twain is a pen name; the author's real name was Samuel Langhorne Clemens. The reason for his choice of pseudonym has long been a cause of speculation, with opinion divided between two main theories. The first is that the name came from Twain's time on the riverboats, when the depth of "safe water" – two fathoms – was measured on a sounding line and indicated by calling "mark twain". The second explanation is that the name originated from his time in Nevada, when he would buy two drinks and ask the bartender to "mark twain" on his tab.

Critical verdict

Twain's best known novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, is also his greatest achievement, and an oft-cited contender for the title of Greatest American Novel. Ernest Hemingway – no slouch himself – could hardly have been more fulsome in his praise when he said "all modern American literature comes from Huckleberry Finn … There was nothing before. There has been nothing as good since." Written at the mid-point in Twain's career, it combines the charm and humour of his earlier writing with the acute social commentary for which he was to become famed. It also helped to do for the novel what Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass did for poetry: namely, to create of it something identifiably American, employing colloquial language and tackling national concerns.

A vocal opponent of racism and imperialism (he was a member of the Anti-Imperialist League) during his lifetime, ironically, Twain's use of regional and dialect terms, particularly with reference to black people, has led to posthumous accusations of bigotry. Such accusations tend to be based on words and phrases considered out of context, however; in general, the message of his novels is actively liberal and progressive.

Twain's reputation as a humorist precedes him, and plays a significant part in his easy appeal. As well as the brand of rugged drollness that characterises his books, he was also the master of the well-turned phrase; aphorisms such as "golf is a good walk spoilt", "rumours of my death have been greatly exaggerated" and "few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example" have entered the language.

Influences

The events of Twain's early life influenced his writing to a great extent, and versions of his own experiences in Hannibal and out west appear in many of his books. He was also, however, a prolific reader, and he and his wife, Olivia, assembled a substantial family library during their lifetime. A great admirer of the work of ancient writers such as Pliny, Herodotus, and Plutarch, his contemporary influences included the work of his close friend William Dean Howells, and the poetry of Robert Browning, whose work Twain liked to read aloud, claiming that "I can read Browning so Browning himself can understand it". He was also deeply interested in the natural world, and referred regularly to a number of scientific volumes.

Now read on

For another iconic representation of slavery in literature, try Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe (the Clemens family were onetime neighbours of Stowe, and owned a copy of Uncle Tom's Cabin inscribed to them by her). Fans of Mark Twain's brand of 19th century literary realism, meanwhile, should consider the works of lesser-known contemporaries such as William Dean Howells and Stephen Crane. Such realism later emerged again in the plays of Arthur Miller. The deep south setting, child's-eye perspective and racial issues in Harper Lee's classic To Kill A Mockingbird have led to comparisons with Huckleberry Finn, while more recently, echoes of Twain's novel can be found in the colloquial narrative voice of DBC Pierre's Man Booker winner, Vernon God Little.

Adaptations

Countless. Among the best are the 1993 film The Aventures of Huck Finn, starring Elijah Wood and Robbie Coltrane, and the 1973 muscial, Tom Sawyer, which starred a singing Jodie Foster.

Recommended biography

Twain dictated his life story to his secretary and authorised biographer, Albert Bigelow Paine. His version of Twain's life, Mark Twain: A Biography, came out two years after the author's death, and has the advantage of having been written by a man who knew Twain personally, and well. It was reissued in three volumes in 2002. For a fascinating psychological examination of Twain's divided self, try Justin Kaplan's 1966 volume, Mr Clemens and Mark Twain. In 2003, Fred Kaplan attempted a revision of Justin Kaplan's theory of the conflict between Twain's inner and outer lives in The Singular Mark Twain; however, his thesis is inadequately worked out.

Criticism

Twain was a fertile author, turning out novels, short stories, essays and satires with great facility. Readers should begin with Huckleberry Finn, which combines adventure, wit and vivid depictions of the geography and people of the Mississippi river with a clear-eyed exposition of contemporary racist attitudes. Taking up the story of the young vagrant Huck, who first appeared as the friend of the hero in Twain's boys' own novel, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, it follows his journey down the Mississippi with a runaway slave, Jim, towards Ohio and freedom. The Innocents Abroad, a travelogue assembled from the newspaper columns Twain wrote during a pleasure cruise with a group of pilgrims through Europe and the Holy Land, was a bestseller during Twain's lifetime and offers a compelling insight into the America of the time, and its inhabitants' interactions with other cultures. Those who are interested in Twain's youthful adventures in the wild west should turn to Roughing It, his witty semi-autobiographical account of Mormons, gold prospecting and real-estate speculation. Pudd'nhead Wilson, a novel dealing with race and slavery, is a good example of his later, darker work.